Identifying the targets that bacterial viruses, or phages, use to halt bacterial growth and then screening against those targets for small molecule inhibitors that attack the same targets provides a unique platform for the discovery of novel antibiotics. Researchers from Montreal-based PhageTech, Inc. describe in the February issue of Nature Biotechnology this novel method for discovering new classes of antibiotics. The article is available on-line today at www.nature.com/nbt/.
“Over the co
Probing the last genomic frontier of higher organisms, an international team of scientists has succeeded in sequencing a little understood – but critical – genetic domain in rice.
In doing so, the group, led by Jiming Jiang, a professor of horticulture at the University of Wisconsin-Madison, and C. Robin Buell of the Institute for Genomic Research in Rockville, Md., has exposed a supposedly barren region of a rice chromosome known as the centromere. The work, published in the current (Jan.
Researchers have discovered that iron in seawater is the key binding agent in the super-strong glues of the common blue mussel, Mytilus edulis. This is the first time researchers have determined that a metal such as iron is critical to forming an amorphous, biological material.
In addition to using the knowledge to develop safer alternatives for surgical and household glues, the researchers are looking at how to combat the glue to prevent damage to shipping vessels and the accidental transp
Scottish company IceRobotics has taken a further step towards bringing its innovative robotic milking technology to market thanks to a second round investment package of £430,000. This includes £75,000 from NESTA (the National Endowment for Science, Technology & the Arts), the organisation that invests in UK creativity and innovation.
IceRobotics has developed a sophisticated vision-based sensor that can precisely target and track a cow’s teats, capturing the 3D coordinate data required to
Studies on common baker’s yeast have led to the discovery of what may be a long-sought mechanism in the life cycle of retroviruses, including the human immunodeficiency virus (HIV). Knowing the details of this step in the infection process could help pinpoint targets for new classes of drugs to fight HIV.
In the Jan. 9 issue of the journal Science, Thomas Menees and Zhi Cheng of the University of Missouri-Kansas City describe the formation of a lariat structure with the genetic materia
Age at Onset and Inflammatory Cells Define Patient Subsets, Guide Treatment
People who develop asthma as children may have a different disease than those who develop it as an adult. A study in the January issue of The Journal of Allergy and Clinical Immunology adds to the growing body of evidence that asthma is not a single disease, but a group of syndromes with different origins and biological characteristics. The research team, led by Sally Wenzel, M.D., a pulmonologist at National
Researchers at the University of Oregon and Stanford University have located a mechanism in the human brain that blocks unwanted memories. This is the first time that anyone has shown a neurobiological basis for memory repression.
The findings, by lead researcher Michael Anderson, associate professor of psychology at the University of Oregon, and his colleague, John D.E. Gabrieli, professor of psychology at Stanford, will be published Jan. 9 in Science.
The research provides compe
Eating salmon may pose health risks
A study of more than two metric tons of North American, South American and European salmon has shown that PCBs and other environmental toxins are present at higher levels in farm-raised salmon than in their wild counterparts.
Researchers at Indiana University and five other research centers say increased toxin levels in farm-raised salmon may pose health risks to people who eat the economically important fish. Their study, which appears in
Biologists at the University of California, San Diego and the Johns Hopkins University have discovered a gene that plays a key role in initiating changes in the brain in response to sensory experience, a finding that may provide insight into certain types of learning disorders.
After birth, learning and experience change the architecture of the brain dramatically. The structure of individual neurons, or nerve cells, changes during learning to accommodate new connections between neurons. Neur
Scientists in the Virginia-Maryland Regional College of Veterinary Medicine (VMRCVM) at Virginia Tech are trying to clone cattle that are genetically incapable of developing “Mad Cow Disease.”
As federal and state government officials grapple with strategies to limit the economic and health risks associated with the troublesome discovery of the nation’s first case of Bovine Spongiform Encephalopathy (BSE) – or “Mad Cow Disease”– Will Eyestone, research associate professor in Large Animal
Researchers have identified a crucial step in a genetic process required for the development of viable eggs. The process, known as imprinting, distinguishes the paternally-inherited and the maternally-inherited copies of a number of developmentally important genes.
The majority of mammalian genes are present in two copies, both of which are equally expressed and regulated. A small number of mammalian genes, however, are subject to special regulation by a process called gene imprinting. The i
Salk study uncovers new information about organ placement
A Salk Institute team of biologists, mathematicians, and physicists has uncovered a novel paradigm for cell communication that provides new insights into the complex question of how the body determines where organs are placed.
The study focused on a fundamental question: how the body tells left from right. Although humans look fairly symmetric on the outside, their inner organs are placed quite asymmetrically; for exa
Researchers at the University of Florida say they have shown that minerals were key to some of the initial processes that formed life on Earth.
Specifically, a borax-containing mineral known as colemanite helps convert organic molecules found in interstellar dust clouds into a sugar, known as ribose, central to the genetic material called RNA. This announcement provides a key step toward solving the 3-billion-year-old mystery of how life on Earth began. The findings will appear in Friday’s
New findings pose a challenge for cold dark matter theory
“The universe is always more complicated than our cosmological theories would have it,” says Nigel Sharp, program officer for extra-galactic astronomy and cosmology at the National Science Foundation (NSF). Witness a collection of new and recently announced discoveries that, taken together, suggest a considerably more active and fastmoving epoch of galaxy formation in the early universe than prevailing theories had called for.
Mayo Clinic genomics researchers are the first to demonstrate that mixing of genetic material can occur naturally, in a living body. The researchers have discovered conditions in which pig cells and human cells can fuse together in the body to yield hybrid cells that contain genetic material from both species and carry a swine virus similar to HIV (the virus that causes AIDS) that can infect normal human cells.
While the research does not answer the question of whether this infection can ca
Researchers at Queen’s University Belfast will be helping to develop the automotive engines of the future, thanks to a new £1 million facility which opens on Friday.
Work in the Engine Test Laboratories will include developing and improving engines for better fuel economy and reducing harmful exhaust emissions which contribute to global warming.
The new facility is part of the University’s world class Virtual Engineering Centre (VEC), which carries out cutting edge research focusing
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